For more than two years, Europe’s leaders have delayed and prevaricated as the survival of the single currency has grown ever less certain. “If the euro fails, then Europe fails,” the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said, implying an unconditional commitment to the single currency.

As the polls began to close at about seven o’clock on Sunday evening, there was a distinctly weird atmosphere in the streets of Paris. It was about then that you could sense François Hollande had made it at last.